Attention

Question 1

Focussed (selective) attention

Answer 1

A situation where individuals try to attend to only one source of information while ignoring other stimuli

Question 2

Divided attention

Answer 2

A situation where two tasks are performed at the same time (multi-tasking)

Question 3

Cocktail party problem

Answer 3

The difficulties involved in attending to one voice when two or more people are speaking at the same time

Question 4

Dichotic listening task

Answer 4

A different auditory stimulus is presented to each ear and attention has to be directed to one message

Question 5

Split attention

Answer 5

Allocation of attention to two (or more) non-adjacent regions of visual space

Question 6

Broadbent’s filter theory

Answer 6

There is a bottleneck in the processing system
Unattended information doesn’t pass the filter (see diagram)
An early selection theory

Question 7

Early selection theory

Answer 7

Stimuli are filtered or selected to be attended to at an early stage during processing

Question 8

Attenuation theory

Answer 8

Alternative to early selection theory
Filer is not completely selective

Question 9

Leakage

Answer 9

Filter does not block but attenuate (reduce the effect)
Information from irrelevant channel ‘leaks’ through filter

Question 10

Slippage

Answer 10

Can’t aim attention precisely enough
Can’t focus on relevant channel all the time so attention will slip to irrelevant channel
Metaphor: Pouring water into a container and missing the opening with some of the water

Question 11

Spillover

Answer 11

Can’t stop deploying attention until resource depleted
Relevant channel needs less attention than available
Metaphor: When pouring water into a container, the container overfills

Question 12

Conditioning with electric shocks

Answer 12

Phase 1: words paired with electric shocks
Phase 2: words presented to irrelevant ear
Result: certain words affect skin conductance responses

Question 13

Repetition priming

Answer 13

Irrelevant stimuli can speed up responses to subsequent stimuli
Seeing the primer activated the concept in memory

Question 14

Late selection theory

Answer 14

Stimuli analysed before filter
Perceptual input is automatic and not capacity limited

Question 15

Lachter vs lavie

Answer 15

Both: no identification without attention
Lachter: if attention is properly focussed, no slippage and processing of irrelevant channel is avoidable
Lavie: capacity of perceptual attention is limited and not under voluntary control. Processing of irrelevant channel is unavoidable

Question 16

Change blindness

Answer 16

Failure to detect various changes in the visual environment
Memory plays a role
Can still occur is finding the change is the task

Question 17

Inattentional blindness

Answer 17

Failure to detect an unexpected object appearing in the visual environment
Memory not required
Occurs when observer is performing another task

Question 18

Dorsal attention network

Answer 18

-Main components: frontal eye field (FEF), intraparietal sculls (IPS)
-Top-down control
-Goal driven orienting
-Left & right hemisphere

Question 19

Ventral attention network

Answer 19

-Main components: ventral frontal complex (VFC), temporoparietal junction (TPJ)
-Bottom-up control
-Stimulus-driven orienting
-mainly right hemisphere

Question 20

Spatial neglect

Answer 20

A disorder involving right-hemisphere damage
Typically left side of objects presented to the left side of visual field are undetected

Question 21

Extinction

Answer 21

A disorder of visual attention in which a stimulus presented to the side opposite the brain damage is not detected when another stimulus is presented at the same time to the side of the brain damage